China Is Building a Global Infrastructure for Its Cultural Industries

On September 4, the Lingang New Area in Shanghai inaugurated an AI+micro-drama overseas service station in Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. This innovative system aims to streamline the process of exporting Chinese cultural content overseas by covering content development, production, translation, and distribution all in one place.

The service station goes beyond merely facilitating the sale of finished dramas abroad; it brings together various stages of the export process into one integrated system.

Online literature, games, and micro-dramas are collectively known in China as the "New Three" of cultural exports. These media formats can be easily adapted, translated, and distributed through digital platforms, simplifying their overseas dissemination. In July, Guangxi Publishing & Media Group launched FLYTOTO, an AI-powered platform designed for short-drama co-creation.

FLYTOTO bridges Chinese production teams and creators with audiovisual institutions across Southeast Asia, offering tools for script analysis, automated video production, multilingual translation, and computing and distribution support.

The platform was unveiled alongside the 2026 China-ASEAN Micro-Drama Competition, which features both live-action and AI-generated micro-dramas. For China, the cultural industry is evolving from merely exporting finished content to developing comprehensive systems that enable content creation, adaptation, and distribution across global markets.

This transformation did not originate with AI micro-dramas, but they represent the most recent developments. In 2017, China Literature, one of China's largest online publishing companies, launched its international Webnovel platform. Initially, it focused on bringing Chinese online fiction to foreign readers through translations.

Today, Webnovel hosts original fiction by writers outside China, providing them with translation, publishing, and monetization systems.

By the end of 2025, China Literature reported that Webnovel had attracted 537,000 international writers and 830,000 original works from overseas. The platform's objective now extends beyond attracting foreign readers for Chinese stories; it also aims to provide the tools, business models, and distribution channels that enable stories to reach international audiences.

As these platforms grow, the distinction between exporting Chinese culture and producing culture for foreign markets blurs. A Chinese company can operate the platform and offer the infrastructure, while the content itself is increasingly generated by writers and producers outside China.

A recent analysis by researchers at the London School of Economics suggests that Chinese micro-drama platforms can exert what they term "platform soft power." These platforms themselves wield an increasingly influential, though often invisible, impact. Through recommendation systems, data analytics, monetization strategies, and user participation, they shape the content audiences encounter and engage with.

Lingang's new AI+micro-drama overseas service station and FLYTOTO in Guangxi further demonstrate that this trend will continue to intensify. The infrastructure supporting cultural exports is becoming an integral part of China's export strategy.

While there's no certainty that this development will lead to increased Chinese cultural influence, it does expand the capabilities of Chinese companies in foreign markets. They now possess the infrastructure, local connections, and capabilities to produce and distribute cultural content across borders. China's cultural industries have long sought ways to reach audiences beyond China's borders, from online literature to micro-dramas.

By developing platforms, translation systems, production tools, and overseas partnerships, Chinese companies can now deliver cultural content across markets without each market appearing as a distinct export project.